Live like you're {living}

John 6:51-58New International Version (NIV)

51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

Tim McGraw -- Live Like You’re Dying music video

The point of that song is to motivate us to live like today may be our last.  We have heard that expression countless times and it is especially popular when someone is presented with a scenario that includes certain death or a life-long injury.  Thursday night at the races a young man was injured after the sprint car he was driving wrecked.  The crash did not seem that bad and before long I assumed they would be racing again shortly.  Then the  driver didn’t get out and it started taking longer and longer.  They eventually called the ambulance over and it took about an hour for the safety crews to extract the driver from the car.  Not knowing the extent of his injuries we assumed the worst.  Eventually we were told that he was speaking to the safety crews so we knew that he did not pass away.  To this point in time, I still do not know the extent of his injuries.  His family said in a press release that he had surgery on Friday and has another one Monday.  And the driver himself sent this tweet out Friday morning, “Thanks everyone for the love.  Long road ahead.  Enjoy every minute you got.”  In other words, live like you’re dying.  When I read his words on Friday, the thought entered my mind of why do we wait to do/say something like this until the end is near or the prognosis isn’t good?  Why do we want to wait until we are presented with death or a severe injury to live like we are dying?  

Some tense of the word live is used six times in our eight verses for this morning.  I think the writer of this gospel wants us to live.  I think the suggestion is to live like we are alive! Alive in the Spirit.  Alive in the word.  Alive in prayer.  Alive!  The living bread that came down from heaven means eternal life.  Forever living.  Jesus didn’t die on the cross in order that we have eternal death.  God’s grace doesn’t extend beyond our greatest imagination for us to praise him for eternal death.  No we are here this morning to worship, praise and thank God for eternal life.  Jesus said, “This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”  Jesus didn’t die so we could do the same.  Jesus lives so we could live.  Oftentimes it is some sort of tragedy that helps us to think or say that we should live like we are dying but this morning I am asking you to examine your way of thinking.  Do not live differently because of death.  Live differently because of life.  Live differently because Jesus lives for you.  He may have died on the cross but the resurrection means he is alive and it is that life that we ought to celebrate.  Do not live like you’re dying, rather, live like you’re alive.  Live like you’re living.

Exactly where this scripture is located is important in our understanding of communion.  With this Sunday included, the last four Sundays have been from John 6 and all of them have dealt with the bread of heaven.   Jesus did not make the five thousand sit down on the grass and give them a lecture so that they understood before he “took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted” as it says in John 6:11. And in our verses for this morning where Jesus picks up on the feeding by speaking of giving his flesh to eat, his concern is less with getting his hearers to understand as it is getting them to eat. Jesus tells his hearers of their absolute need to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Humanity.  The lesson here is between the lines but important nonetheless: Jesus promises instead of instructing or explaining.  Craig Satterlee is a Bishop in the Michigan Synod of the Lutheran Church and his quote nails what the promises of Jesus mean to our faith:

Jesus promises that whoever eats the flesh and drinks the blood of Jesus, the Son of Humanity, has eternal life now and will be raised up on the last day. Jesus promises to provide food for the life of the world, his flesh and blood. Jesus promises to nourish the world with the gift of himself. For the “flesh” and “blood” of Jesus, his incarnate life and very real death on the cross, is life-giving food for us and for the world. In, with, and under the bread and wine of Holy Communion, which is nothing other than Christ’s body and blood, Jesus nourishes faith, forgives sin, and empowers us to be witnesses to the Gospel.

Jesus nourishes faith, forgives sin and empowers us to be witnesses to the gospel.  Nourish, forgive, empower and live.  How powerful are those words.  If we nourish, forgive, empower and live for one another then there can only be one possible outcome: love. To live like we are living instead of dying means exactly that.  We are called to take Jesus out into the world.  We are called to share the blood and bread with the world and now we know exactly what that means: nourish, forgive, empower and live.    

John 6 is important to the formation of our faith.  If you get some time today or in the upcoming week, please read it.  If you read it carefully it is my hope that you will see how Jesus is changing how we view wisdom.  Jesus is trying to get us to see that wisdom in not as much knowledge and understanding as it is a relationship with God that is to be trusted and embraced.  Over the past year or so I have been trying to make the point that God does not care if you know when the Nicene Creed was written.  He doesn’t care if you know the definitions of words like “eucharist” and “eschatology”.  God wants a relationship with you.  We have been taught that we must invite God into our hearts and lives.  I am here to tell you that this is not the case.  It is not so much an invitation of understanding as it is an invitation to the realization of the fulfilled promises of God.  God has already invited you.  The work is done.  God is already out in front of you and accepting the love that He already has for you is where your part of the relationship starts.  You see, God is already in relationship with you.  He has been since day one.  Your end of the relationship starts when you begin to see that relationship.  You do not have to understand it to be a part of it.  

Nourish.  Forgive.  Empower. Live.  Those are the promises of Christ.  Those are the pillars of the relationship God has with each of us.  In a moment we will sing our hymn of invitation and as we do remember the words Trust and Obey.  The title of the hymn is not Instruct and Understand for good reason.  Place your trust into the relationship God has been calling you to.  Please stand and join me in singing our hymn of invitation #556 Trust and Obey and remember to live like you’re living.  Live to nourish, live to forgive, and live to empower. Live like you’re truly living.  Amen.